Re: [Nolug] Who usually shows up for meetings?

On Sun, Dec 07, 2008 at 07:24:21PM -0600, Petri Laihonen wrote:
>
>
> B. Estrade wrote:
> > On Sun, Dec 07, 2008 at 11:44:13AM -0600, Dennis J Harrison Jr wrote:
> >
> >> Also Finland has one of the highest rates of social mobility over a
> >> lifetime. Meaning you can go from dirt poor to affluent there much
> >> easier then here :)
> >>
> >
> > Finland is also "slightly smaller than Montana" in land area with nearly 1/60th the population of the US.
> >
> > https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/fi.html
> >
> > Do you think you can rightly compare the two?
> >
> > Brett
> >
> >
> >
> Size difference of the 2 countries are brought up almost always brought
> up immediately. While it does contribute to some issues, there are many
> others it really does not matter. When related to the original
> statement, I believe the size of the country makes very small
> difference. I think more determining factors are the attitudes towards
> change and eagerness to move forward.

I don't think you can even begin to compare the US with most countries. And it is my impression that Finland is one of the few countries out there that seem to exist in some sort of "sweet spot" that allows them to not have to worry about many problems that other countries do, including the US. In otherwords, it is easy to sit there and say the US /should/ be like Finland in some particular regard, but the reality is that Finland enjoys its current state due to accidents of geography, culture, history, and economics.

>
> Actually I believe the size of the Finland is against the statement.
> Let's say you have a product you want to sell to everyone in Finland and
> the product is worthy purchase. The pool you are selling to is only a
> bit over 5 million. Here on the other hand, the pool is 320 Million +
> all illegal immigrants. Then on the other hand, there are issues here
> which naturally make selling the product more difficult. To mention
> couple, a distribution due to the size of the country, mega corporations
> which do not allow you to enter on their turfs, or at minimum, make you
> pay hefty share to them.

The basis of the US economy are small businesses, many of whom have absolutely no interest in selling across town, but less across the country. Like Finland, many of these business owners are content with their piece of the pie.

>
> One would also expect some common things such as broadband be a lot
> cheaper here due to the quantity of homes and businesses using it, then
> how come this same commodity is faster and cheaper in many other,
> smaller countries? (Including Finland.) The rules of supply and demand
> does not seem to work....

I have no idea what drives broadband prices, so I'm not going to pretend I do.

>
> Per capita could be more appropriate way of measuring things in
> different countries.

Not for everything it's not. It's an issue of scale, and being bigger brings different (often bigger) problems.

Finland looks like a nice place, but like I say, I don't think you can honestly expect a place like the US to suddenly mirror it on a much, much larger scale.

Brett

>
> Petri
>
>
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-- 
B. Estrade
Louisiana Optical Network Initiative
+1.225.578.1920 aim: bz743
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